Saturday, August 17, 2013

This is the Kirkus Review of Book #3, "The Saeshell Book of Time Part 3: Paradise Lost". The review sounds a little overly harsh in some ways about how challenging the book is. Still, it is correct in that it is not "beach reading" --- it is a very thoughtful read which will leave you contemplating the possibilities afterwards. Here is the review:

THE SAESHELL BOOK OF TIME PART 3: PARADISE LOSTBiesele, RustyIllus. by Curtis, MattCreateSpace (330 pp.)$14.99 paperback, $3.99 e-bookISBN: 978-1470100346; October 1, 2013BOOK REVIEWIn the third installment of Biesele’s (The Saeshell Book of Time: Part 2: Rebirth of Innocents, 2013, etc.) sci-fi/fantasy series, two Earthlings embrace their destinies as allies and enemies complicate their path.The story picks up on the planet Sophista, where evolutionarily advanced non-corporeal energy creatures live symbiotically with telepathic humans. The Sophistan collective is testing Stefan and Tova2—a powerful, mated pair of human hybrids, born on Earth, who have evolved into “new and unique life forms” and are fated to rule Earth and protect its telepaths. The Sophistans are ruthlessly logical and expect Stefan and Tova2 to rule rationally, but their ownmotivations are murky. Tova2 is forced to create and destroy a helpless life form, and, later, she and Stefan confront a nightmarish creature that has caused a Sophistan energy-matter hybrid to become sinister and violent. Later, Tova2 and Stefan find out that they, along with Stefan’s gifted younger sister, Aleah, are part of a creature called Atreyeu that exists outside of time. Stefan and Tova2’s future unborn son, who travels through time with Atreyeu’s offspring, also visits them at significant moments, watching as they negotiate challenges and locate telepaths on Earth, including the young Tyco and Ty. Along the way, author Biesele also provides substantive commentary on rationalism versus empathy, aggression versus passivity, and time paradoxes. Given the story’s vast complexity, the first two installments are required reading. Even then, this book’s many secretive characters, cacophonous telepathic conversations, ambiguous innuendos and non-sequential events will likely make the book quite difficult for casual readers to enjoy. It’s a dense amalgam of drama and philosophy that, even for aficionados, may require another installment to fully clarify.A dense sci-fi tale that will likely appeal primarily to fans of previous books in the series.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

I heard from a reader the other day that my first book,
while not especially terrifying on the first read, had made them think about
what it would be like for humanity to encounter an alien culture. And then they
came to the conclusion that the book had been pretty realistic about that and
that aspect was pretty frightening. Most authors wonder at some point where a
particular part of their novel comes from. Writing, in its initial stages, is
largely an unconscious effort and little epiphanies like this along the way are
part of the journey of self-discovery that is an innate part of writing. My
self-discovery was the mental root-source of my models of alien encounters: the
1970 British science fiction TV series by Terry Anderson called “UFO”.

I led a relatively sheltered life as a child and when I saw
this series, it was very shocking in its realism. Almost every episode ends in
a tragedy. We capture a human looking alien and give it truth serum to get
their stoic and powerful mind to open up (this alien was an older teen). The
serum was incompatible with their metabolism and they die right there in front
of you in horrible agony. The aliens come from a dying planet where everyone is
sterile. So they view us like cattle — as a source of transplant organs to keep
themselves going. When some random
citizen dies at their hands, the forces battling the UFOs keep the death a
secret. So the relatives and families of the loved one pine for years hoping
that their family member will be found, when actually the relative is simply
dead. And then there is the story of the people in the secret SHADOW
organization, the ones battling the UFOs. Their family cannot know what they
do. So sometimes, family needs are sacrificed as they ignore them to deal with
a UFO crisis. A child dies when a dad can’t deliver needed medicine in time because
a UFO crisis erupts. As you can see, going from the always happy ending world of
childhood TV to this series would be pretty shocking.

This TV series is a wondrous source of ideas in how
encountering an alien culture might play-out and the realistic problems that
might arise. UFO was a very cynical series because of the fatalistic thought
patterns that frequented television during the cold war era. My aliens actually
have a great deal of empathy which they learned over the centuries of dealing with
humans. Yes, “learned” because empathy is not necessarily required for all life
forms as I clearly demonstrate with the lizards in book #4.

But there are a few things that standout about humans that
can lead to frightening prospects when we encounter an alien culture. We are a
self-repairing, totally autonomous creature that can be very easily molded to
fit the needs of aliens. Rather than being solid and unchangeable, like a rock,
humans have an editable DNA that controls everything about how they work. We
are designed to be changeable. And our mind is very easy to mold too. All one
has to do is solve the brain interface problem to where experience and
knowledge can be rapidly streamed into our minds, and our brains will rapidly
form into a device for the computations presented. In short, we are the perfect
tool for advanced aliens. Like UFO, the aliens in the Children of Sophista
ruthlessly exploit this. The question becomes, “What alien will control the
humans and how will they keep the other aliens out.” When you read the Children
of Sophista Series, you learn the frightening yet realistic truth about how
this could be accomplished.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

I thought it would be interesting to compare Trisha Conway
from the 1970’s Tomorrow People Season 4 (left side of picture) with the
Federation Police Officercharacter on
the right side. The Federation Police Officer (FPO) is a major character in The
Saeshell Book of Time and she does have a name but revealing it would reveal
some of the plot of the book. When I saw Trisha while watching the series, it
gave me the idea for the FPO.

Trisha is an interesting study because in the 1970’s,
writerswere still having trouble
understanding what a woman in a more dominant, driving character role would
look like. Trisha started out being the secondary character to Col. Masters of
the British military intelligence branch that did research into ESP. Their initial
mission was to use ESP as a weapon and thus they attempted to intimidate and
blackmail the Tomorrow People into being their weapon. This leads to a
seemingly irresolvable conflict in that the Tomorrow People only have stun guns
whereas the military has real guns. The resolution is most unexpected and I
encourage you to watch the third season story, “Secret Weapon”.

In the fourth season, Col. Masters is killed and Trisha
is thrust into a lead position (without a rank or a uniform). The character becomes
very interesting because she becomes a mix of the obligatory female vulnerability
and the strength of a leader, though the strength she is allowed is not nearly
strong enough for such a lead role. Trisha eventually does become a Tomorrow
Person and is sent off to be trained to be a Federation Police Officer and is
thus dispatched to oblivion in the series.

There are all sorts of interesting things that were left
on the floor in the series surrounding Trisha. Roger Price, the series creator,
was facing the Zombie Apocalypse at this point as this one season series had
failed to die. Now he was in season four and wondering where the story was
heading next. Luckily, I have yet to reach that point.

So I approached my FPO a bit differently. She was born in
the Federation as the privileged daughter to a leader of the Federation and her
vulnerability as a prized (spoiled child) starts there. Daddy dearest decides
that in the “violence free”, dystopian Federation, a soft daughter might have a
limited lifespan. So he sends her off to the Federation Police Academy, which
is the equivalent to Earth Special Forces. Her two tools are a stun gun and a
device for sterilizing people against reproduction (covertly). So it’s only her
toughness and infiltration skills that allow her to survive trips the
uncivilized words, such as Earth. When she encounters the very emotional,
sentimental, and overwhelmingly powerful Children of Sophista, her emotional
side begins to reemerge. This turns the 1970’s problem with the Trisha character
upside down, with my FPO having to rediscover her soft humanity while
maintaining her capability as a Special Forces officer.

Click on Links Below for Information

The contact form below can be used to talk to the author, to sign up for book giveaways, and request being put on the list to receive special treats from time to time. I will also email you about special book events.

Book #2

Book #3

Book #4

About Me

Everyone has hidden talents. At some point in your childhood, you selected a fork in the road and decided which of your good talents you would pursue. My first fork led me through government funded school research, corporate funded research, finally to various bleeding edge projects in Silicon Valley. Now, I am looping backwards in time so that I can try the other fork. I am on a campaign to help kids keep those brain cells us adults no longer have. Use them or lose them.